Jonathan Zasloff

Really. I’m quite surprised to see that people are going so soft on the Mittster, saying that Romney inadvertently stated what he really believes. Mitt, like all Republicans nowadays, cares about the very poor very much. This is primarily for three reasons: 1) He needs the very poor to serve as the scapegoat for the […]

Marianne Gingrich’s lawyer comes along with a (mostly-accurate) attack on the Newtster. No big deal there. But wait a minute: the former Mrs. Gingrich’s lawyer is Victoria Toensing — where have I heard that name before? Oh yes — that Victoria Toensing. Long-time Washington GOP political operative. A very high priced inside-the-Beltway fixer for the […]

Yesterday Los Angeles celebrated Martin Luther King Day with a parade and community service work designed to honor the slain civil rights leader. All very well and good, but I can’t help thinking that the nation still hasn’t quite figured out how to honor King’s birthday. This is a problem with many of our civic […]

Teresa R. Wagner, a conservative Republican who applied for a faculty job at Iowa and was turned down, thinks so: Ms. Wagner, who graduated from the law school in 1993 and had taught at the George Mason University School of Law, was not hired. She sued, alleging discrimination because of her political beliefs. Late last […]

That’s what pundits would have you believe, that we’re a “center-right” nation, that Reaganism is deep in the electorate’s bones, yadda yadda yadda. But does the data bear it out? Well, no. James A. Stimson is a political scientist at the UNC-Chapel Hill, and one of the most well-respected public opinion researchers in the nation. […]

…and it doesn’t matter. Thoughtful voices across the political spectrum and the world have rightfully been attacking Gingrich for calling the Palestinians an “invented people.” But let’s be clear on what Gingrich is wrong about. You don’t need Gingrich to tell you that the idea of a “Palestinian people” is relatively new. All you need […]

Jason Epstein’s Introduction to the recently-published 50th Anniversary edition of Jane Jacobs’ The Death and Life of Great American Cities makes this powerful intellectual connection: Death and Life … [is] about the dynamics of civilization, how vital economies and their societies are formed, elaborated, and sustained, and the forces that thwart and ruin them…Her sympathies […]

Over the last few years, whenever I have been forced to watch Newt Gingrich on television, I have had this nagging question at the back of my head: where have I seen this before? And suddenly, it just hit me: Gingrich is AWESOM-O. AWESOM-O, you might recall, is a fake robot, invented by Cartman from […]

A colleague was just typing something on her iPad. When she typed “law review,” it auto-corrected to “laser Jew.” Discuss. Other excellent examples can be found here. [Cross-posted at The Reality-Based Community]

I was surprised and very pleased to find that Tantor Audio has recently released the Jefferson Bible on audio. More Americans — and particularly more Jewish Americans — should get to know this work much better. What is the Jefferson Bible? Recall the 3rd President of the United States. Thomas Jefferson loved Jesus. He told […]